{"id":50326,"date":"2019-02-26T17:14:54","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T15:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=50326"},"modified":"2022-09-21T12:15:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T09:15:13","slug":"the-culmination-of-one-journey-and-the-beginning-of-the-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-culmination-of-one-journey-and-the-beginning-of-the-next\/","title":{"rendered":"The Culmination of One Journey &#8211; And the Beginning of the Next"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[504,539,442],"acf":{"old_id":"50326","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37333,"related_cahpter":"164","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"How far they have come - and what a long way yet to go","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Torah is a book of journeys. From Haran to Canaan. From Canaan to Egypt. From Egypt to Sinai to the Land of Israel. By modern means of travel these places are not particularly far from each other, although in biblical times, they must have seemed unfathomably distant. Indeed, before automobiles and aeroplanes, travel was invariably a much slower experience. I have a copy of a letter from the early 1900s in which my great-grandfather explains that travelling from Jerusalem to Tiberias takes three days, because one must travel by donkey!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Genesis, the first book of the Torah, God tells Abram to \u2018Go forth from your native land and from you father\u2019s house to the land that I will show you\u2019 (12:1). Together with his wife Sarai, Abram leaves the familiarity of Haran for the unfamiliarity of Canaan. Their journey is deeply, cosmically significant: God promises Abram blessings of a great name and a great nation. To mark this creation of covenant, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">brit<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 a mutually incentivised agreement \u2013 God renames them Abraham and Sarah. A journey to a new land becomes a transformation of identity, leading to the emergence of the people of Israel, who continue the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">brit<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that God made with Abraham.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Deuteronomy, the final book of the Torah, the Israelites are poised to enter the land of Israel after forty years in the desert. Moses relays God\u2019s words to the people: \u2018See, this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing, if you obey the commandments of your God, the Eternal, that I enjoin upon you this day: and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of your God the Eternal, but turn away from the path that I enjoin upon you this day\u2019 (11:26-28). God\u2019s promise here is more complicated than with Abraham. It contains a caveat: if you follow God\u2019s commandments, you will be blessed, but if you do not, you will be cursed. Here, blessing is not a promise, but a bonus. The threat of curse rankles ominously.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We often tell ourselves, it\u2019s about the journey, not the destination. This is the culmination of a journey that began many generations ago. God is not speaking to just one person, as God was with Abraham. God is speaking to a nation, on the cusp of entering the land that will become their home. A nation who must work together to create a just and civil society. Perhaps the threat of a curse is to remind the people of Israel both how far they have come, and just what is at stake as they finally enter the land that God promised them.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image by: ddzphoto on Pixabay<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":50329,"id":50329,"title":"dt11-journey","filename":"dt11-journey.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/dt11-journey.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-culmination-of-one-journey-and-the-beginning-of-the-next\/dt11-journey\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"dt11-journey","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":50326,"date":"2019-02-26 15:14:41","modified":"2022-08-31 14:50:17","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/dt11-journey-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/dt11-journey-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/dt11-journey-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/dt11-journey-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/dt11-journey.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/dt11-journey.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/dt11-journey-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/dt11-journey-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The Culmination Of One Journey - 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